Episode 170 - Every Excuse Is a Problem You Refused to Solve.

It is easy to explain why you are stuck. A teammate is late. Your team lacks a skill. Someone assembled the product wrong. A competitor has a better network. You never had the internship. In this episode, Steve and Jake break down how engineers turn legitimate constraints into excuses, then show how to flip them into action. Not theory, practical, tactical advice for taking ownership when the obvious answer is to blame someone else.

Key Topics Covered:
• Why excuses feel good now but cost you later
• How to separate a real constraint from surrendered ownership
• What to do when your work depends on someone else delivering first
• How to make progress without doing every task in sequence
• Why poor assembly results may point back to design, training, or instructions
• How leaders create systems that make mistakes harder to make
• Turning skill gaps and resource limits into capacity-building plans
• How to compete when someone else has a stronger network or built-in advantage
• Why discipline can outperform natural talent over time
• How to position nontraditional experience when your resume looks weaker on paper

Actionable Steps:
• Capture the excuse you are using instead of letting it pass unchallenged
• Ask, “What part of this is still under my control?”
• Check dependencies before the deadline, not after they fail
• Ask what can be completed in parallel while you wait
• Build instructions and systems that reduce reliance on perfect execution
• Verify whether people actually have the skills you expect from them
• Create capacity by systemizing work that does not require your direct involvement
• Translate another person’s advantage into a behavior you can reproduce
• Reframe missing experience around the value of what you did instead
• Choose the harder action now when it creates the better outcome later

Who This Episode Is For:
• Engineers who keep getting blocked by other people
• Early-career engineers worried they are already behind
• Technical leaders frustrated by execution mistakes
• Engineers comparing themselves to better-connected or more experienced peers
• Anyone who knows their explanation is becoming an excuse

Why It Matters:
Your career does not move forward because your reasons are valid. It moves forward when you take responsibility for what happens next. The engineers who grow fastest learn to turn constraints into decisions, disadvantages into work, and frustration into action. That is how you build trust, visibility, performance, and leadership capacity.

Where to Listen:
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Apple Podcasts
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Or wherever you get your podcasts

If this episode hit home, send it to someone. The Impactful Engineer grows by word of mouth, just like the best careers do.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:21

Engineers don't fail because they lack technical skill. They fail because they never learn how to lead, communicate, and take ownership. This is the Impactful Engineer. We give you the blueprint for career excellence and not textbook answers. I'm Steve Maxie, a senior manager in product development, and I'm here with my brother Jake, owner and principal engineer at NLS Engineering. If you're done with a status quo and ready to take control of your career, then you're listening to the right show. Hello, Jake.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

How you doing, man? I'm doing great, man. Doing solid. Very, very good. Do you have enough caffeine today? Not yet. Okay. Right after we record, I'm going to get more. Yeah. Yep. So let's get amped.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Very good. All right. Well, I'll do some housekeeping. So uh most common episode is Steve and I getting on here talking about uh leading, communicating, and taking ownership. Um today will be more about tactics uh to help you lead, which is gonna be cool. Uh the other episode type, which is super rare, is just one of us get on, say stuff, hopefully uh helps you out. And then the third episode type is us and a guest, and they'll bring their expertise and share that with you. We'll have a conversation around it, and it always leads to some good stuff that you can take away. Those are the three types. Uh, let's get into this.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Let's do it. I have uh something that has been helpful for me over the years. Uh, and it stems from the inverted thinking model and frame that we've heard a lot about and that uh, you know, people use. And there's this uh favorite thing that we all like to do, which is like give excuses or you know, reasons to make our little egos feel better in the moment. Um I like to talk about this as something that uh we make the trade, right? Um we want to feel good right now, and we don't want anything to hurt right now, right? We don't want it to be tough, we want to feel good and it's easy, right? And so giving excuses is like the the the best way to do that, or insert reason, you know, like um so today talking about capturing those, because we all do it to this day, we do it. Noah's um is no one is infallible. That's right. Yeah, and we don't want those to go to waste, all right. So you capture it and then you flip it, maybe ask yourself a few questions about it, you know, what would it what would it take to, or why does this matter, or uh some other things that we'll cover to turn it into some ammo and and a strategy for you to win and get better, uh, which that's what life is all about from my perspective. So Steven. Give us a few excuses you've had recently, or maybe just start with the one.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Yeah. And let's dissect this a little just a little bit. Yeah, we we can go back and forth. Um okay. So let's let's start with uh I'm waiting for Jake to finish the drawings before I can go through the phase gate. So I'm not doing what I need to do because I'm waiting on Jake to get to get for for him to get his thing done before I get my thing done. Pretty logical, but I hear it all the time.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

A nice reason for why you're not where you um could be.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah. Yeah. So what I would feel good. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's not my problem because you know, Jake's the one that's fucking up.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

But the thing is, it's like uh um in instead of just waiting on Jake, what could you be doing to ensure that Jake is getting you that shit as fast as you can, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:08

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Uh I think we covered this either on the last episode or the episode before that was asking before the deadline if he's still on track. Like, hey Jake, you know, we got this thing due in two weeks and that I need to complete my task. Are you done? Are you on track? Are you do you need any help? Um, any more resources, etc., right? Uh is there something that that is uh confusing that you need my help clearing up? So I think this is an easy one, but uh it really just gets ahead of it. And then also, do you really need Jake's drawings to finish what you're doing? Is there something else you could do that's further in the timeline that doesn't require Jake's drawings that you can accomplish and get ahead uh further down the line? So maybe Jake is late getting you those drawings, and the task that requires those drawings will be a little late, but all the other items are early, and so your end date is either on time or early. That's right. So so we don't have to do everything in series. You find what can be done and you do it, regardless of where Jake is with his fucking drawings.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Yes, it's it's like the fill the gap method. It's it's you make the holes on purpose and you build everything around it and get as far as you can, and then when I'm done, you're just filling in the gaps. Yep. With the most likely scenario or just the data that you need. Yeah. Okay. Good little warm-up. Uh so you know, the whole idea is take your excuses, flip them around, figure out what you can do, right, to build your skill and make it more likely that you are not holding yourself back due to these excuses you're you're giving uh to the world. So that doesn't make any sense at all. But you'll give it a lot. That's why we're giving examples.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

That's why we're giving examples.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Yeah, because we're terrible at just breaking this down. Um for me this week, it was my team doesn't know how to build these systems, so I won't be able to make progress on systems this year. I don't have anyone to do systems. Great. That makes me feel better because I was really feeling bad about the non-progress on this because I know I need them and it would unlock the next level. So that made me feel better that I could identify why it's not happening. Uh, so that was great. Immediately though, uh, I said, how about I take a little bit of time, because I do got some time, I can carve it out, right? To create some systems myself for them, for my team to run, because my team is very good at executing on SOPs, systems, right, and work in the playbook. All right. So how about I create some systems for them to run, which will free up time for me to create the systems that I have declared cannot be done, right? So take it back into your control. What can you do? Well, I can I can create ways to build distance between uh or or build capacity, I should say, in my ability to get to the systems. Because what's stopping me? Well, all these other things that if there was an instruction set could be done without my involvement. So that's what I did.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah, so you projected expectations without verifying that those expectations could be met in the first place. Right. So so you assume that they could create systems without actually understanding that they could they couldn't, at least to the level that you were expecting.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Well, and you know that little specific fact because I shared this with you pre-call. That is why the systems weren't getting done.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Yeah, exactly. But the bone the bare bones facts, and that's just a misalignment of skill and resource allocation, but the bare bones facts was systems were not being built, and I'm the only one that can do them, and I don't have time, so they won't be done.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

But then you just flip it around. So that was you know, that was an example for me this week. Yeah. Hopefully that helps somebody.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Okay, I got a follow-up one.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah, what do you got?

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Yeah. Uh for for all those product development people out there, my homies. Uh this product fit like shit when it was assembled because our assembly tech makes constant mistakes. You know?

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Giving all the power to the tech.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah. Okay. Well, did you write good work instructions? Did you design it so assembly was intuitive? Um, what we call pokyoking, right? That it can only go in one way. Um, were they trained? Did people properly demonstrate during this training training to put this together?

SPEAKER_02 8:39

So of course I did.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

But enough to people listening are like, check, check, check, still their fault, check.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yep. But really, like, really look at it, you know, give it to a kid, see if they can do it. You right in my in my experience, you have to uh I think the term that that we used a lot was write instructions so a gorilla could do it. And it and it's not a um it's not a downplay on the intelligence of the person putting it together. What it is, it is giving them them the tools that mistakes are nearly impossible because they have everything they need.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

That's right. They got a thousand jobs coming in, they need to get yours done. That's one of many, many, many. And you're gonna rely on their inherent experience, their awakeness at the time. Did they have their caffeine this morning? Did they fight with their spouse before they got to work? Did they blah, blah, blah, blah, blah? You're gonna rely on all that being perfect so that they exercise their absolute critical judgment at that point in time that they're doing your project with vague instructions so that they're the hero so that it all gets done. Yep. Or someone that was out on a bender for like three days in Vegas with all their buddies and then shows up to work could look at your instructions and go, all right, I could follow that. Yeah. Which one would you think has more success long term? Plus, you're you're making it easy for 'em.

unknown 10:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Which makes their job easier. Yeah. Which one do you think faster?

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Which one which one do you think produces the better result more often?

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah. And there's a common theme from from all these uh examples. Um, and it's it's really just taking ownership. You know, what can you do to ensure the success of of others and yourself? Yeah. It's it it is it is your challenge to solve.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

And you know, I'll give you another example, and I didn't really ever think this, um, but I thought it would be a good example. Uh so when I was starting my company, I could say my for to my comp about my competitors. They win because they've been an engineer in this area for years, for decades. They know everybody, right? So I had uh uh someone that I know start a business at relatively the same time in the same industry, just doing one separate, just a different discipline. So we do the same stuff, same job market, same design, same clients, same everything. And they've been here their whole lives and worked at multiple companies in the area, know a ton of people. I could sit here in my little desk and I've only been in the New England area for six years and say, Well, I just don't know a bunch of people, and so they're just gonna do better than me, right? I could have said that. But instead, like if you're saying something equivalent, you can say, well, in this example, what does that translate to and how do I just manufacture it? Right? So what it translates to is they've run into people over the decades, uh, you know, developing relationships just from the sheer volume of interacting with people over that time period. How do I create that same volume in a shorter amount of time? Well, I get extremely violent with emails, calls, networking, showing up in person. Hey, how about I do that for 12 hours a day for six months straight? And four of those months while I'm still working at my other job, right? So after I finish my eight to ten hours of doing very important work at my current job, how about I spend another four to six freaking reaching out to people, right? And you helped me with that, and I'm very grateful for that too. You know, I was like, hey, can you prep some stuff for me? You're like, I'll help you, dude.

unknown 12:19

You know?

SPEAKER_02 12:20

You're my bro. You were yeah, you were on like you were there all the time, but you were just like, hey, I could help you every once in a while. I'm like, cool. But for the most part, like I was just emailing people forever and calling on the phone. So um, most of this comes down to just like, are you willing to to flip it and do that, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Yeah. And you know, I don't know if you got anything to say on that one, but but I mean it it it really boils down to like uh you know excuses of like oh, that person is either naturally gifted or insert has this advantage or skill, right? Yeah, so you you have two approaches gain the advantage yourself or work a shit ton to overcome it. Yeah, that's really what it boils down to. Like if if uh if Jake knows a ton of people because he plays, you know, golf, like the example we talked about earlier, go learn fucking golf.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

That's right, you know, yeah. They got the promotion because they play the political game. It's like, how do I play the political game on my terms?

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Not like, oh, they only get it because they brown nose or because they suck up or because they know the person.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

And and and then on the other the the other point I was making there is you know, if if uh hey, I'm just using your name a ton, is if Jake is super good at basketball just naturally, right? Or no, let's let's go to uh guitar, right? Jake is amazing at guitar and he doesn't even have to practice, blah, blah, blah. Well, guess what? Two things. One, you can practice your ass off to get good at guitar and you will catch up. And then the other aspect of that is typically people who are naturally gifted at something know they don't have to try, and so they don't. Not all the time, but more often than not. Uh, and that is your advantage because you have to work so hard to get to the bass level they are at that you will continue to work and continue to surpass them in skill set just by sheer momentum, and then you will pass them up, and then now you have the advantage, and they are going to be trailing you at all times because they do not have the discipline to keep pushing.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

And they don't know how. Yeah, they don't have the skill, yeah. And you're even if they tried to catch up to you on that day that you passed them, you already have so much momentum and compounding behind you, there's no way they could catch up. Yeah, exactly. But they could do what's required to catch up and do three times as much as you. Yeah, and so what? And so what? Sure. Yeah, so uh here's one for like the new the new grad. You uh you're talking to your buddy's got a nice job, right? So you you got that job because you had so much co-op experience. I didn't I didn't do any co-ops and I screwed myself, so that's why I can't get a job. It's like, oh, okay. So what do I have? Like you as the person that's giving this excuse. So what experiences do I have that trump co-op experience? And how do I communicate that in terms so that the hiring manager understands in my next interview, right? Or how do I communicate that on my resume so that the hiring manager or the screening person gets me to the internet? So like you gotta just learn, and we could do a million of these examples, but you just gotta learn to capture your excuse, bring it back, tear it apart, insert new thing that you're going to take action on repeatedly to then overcome that. Um that's the message today. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Um actually I I have a good good example uh do it that is real and mine for the for that last one that you you gave is I did not do internships, I did not do co-ops or any of that shit. Neither um and I know you didn't, and um almost everyone in my class did. Almost everyone. And so that that had uh an the appearance of a disadvantage. But what I did do during all those summers is I built race cars and raced, right? And so what I did is I leveraged that experience. And I was like, hey, I've rebuilt engines, I've redone wire harnesses, I've you know, set up suspension, I've done XXXXXX, all these things. And as an engineer, those are all skill sets that are incredibly valuable. And so I leaned on that. It was it's a big section in my resume when I first graduated of you know personal experiences and laid into the um the things that I did outside of school because I didn't have a co-op to lean on. And that is what got me in the door to a lot of interviews. We're like, hey, you know, we we saw you didn't have any internships or anything like that. You're just right out of school, but we wanted to talk to you because you had all these other things over here.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Yeah. And you didn't not do the internships because you were lazy. You prioritized what you were doing over them.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Right? You were ambitious to do something.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Right. And you were taking the lead on your own shit, which shows a whole nother skill set in and of its own. While people had, and I'm not dogging co-ops, like you should like it. If I did it again, I would do it. And then I would be able to the key is to be able to explain the experience so that it makes sense. Because a ton of people with great co-op experience just list out learned this. Yeah, you know it helps this. Well, and it just does nothing for them. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um, so it's I don't know. Do like if there was a final message from my end, it's just do what is required over complaining about insert disadvantage. Complaining feels good now and hurts later. This is why we do it, because we put off the bad and we get the good right away. But doing what is required hurts now and feels better later. And that's the one that usually works out the best. So I would flip it. I would do what's hard and what takes effort and hurts now, and then you'll be feeling pretty damn good later.